PASADENA – Tough financial times have led Pasadena Heritage to call off the traditional July block party that draws thousands to the iconic Colorado Street Bridge every year.

The up-front $100,000 cost of staging the summer fund-raiser is too risky an investment this year, said Sue Mossman, the preservation group’s executive director.

“It didn’t seem prudent to take on that kind of expenditure,” she said. “Everyone – from sponsors to donors to folks coming out for a fun summer event – is being more frugal, and we didn’t think it was fiscally responsible to do it this year. The risk is too high.”

But the city hasn’t seen the last of the Celebration on the Bridge, Mossman said.

“There are rumors we’re not having it again, and that’s not true,” she said. “We’re having a one-year vacation.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the bridge’s closure in 1989 for a four-year restoration and earthquake retrofit, so Pasadena Heritage is encouraging everyone to mark Bridge Day on July 18 in some way.

“To remember times in the past,” Mossman said. “You can look at the bridge, drive on the bridge, ride your bike across the bridge – play a game of bridge,” she joked.

Like other nonprofits, Pasadena Heritage has tightened its belt this year, reducing its operating budget from $700,000 to $500,000, Mossman said. It was decided that the high outlay for the bridge event was too much money and work for the reduced staff without a guaranteed major pay-off.

“One of our main cost-cutting strategies was to put this on hold for a year,” she said. “Costs are high and the net relatively low…We’re being lean this year.”

The bridge party became an instant tradition in the city when it started a few years before the bridge shut down to traffic.

“In the early years, before the bridge was closed, we had the party to draw attention to it,” said Mossman, who recalled the years-long efforts by Pasadena Heritage and others to save one of the city’s best-loved landmarks.

“Clearly the city was a huge partner and a huge proponent of doing the bridge right,” Mossman said, “But it did take a lot of community support, letter-writing and phone calls, and work with all the funding agencies,” she said. “It was just an amazing story.”

The elegantly curved bridge, which Mossman said has been called the most beautiful in the world, won’t go completely unheralded in its 95th year.

A mailing going out Monday will spread the word about an alternative event planned for Sept. 12.

“We’re having a dinner reception honoring a number of people who assured the bridge was restored – and that when the seismic improvements were done the bridge was put back in its original configuration and design,” Mossman said.

“There had been talk of demolishing it, abandoning it, or fixing it but streamlining and simplifying the design – which would have been heartbreaking,” she added.